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Gene Frenette: It’s the same old story for Team Tease

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When the Jaguars surprisingly released quarterback David Garrard five days before the season opener, the go-to phrase Jack Del Rio kept using as an explanation was that “he just couldn’t get it going.”

There always seems to be something holding this franchise back. In too many critical moments, they find confounding ways to lose games that are there for the taking, just like those giveaways last year against the New York Giants and Washington Redskins. And the home games with the Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins in 2009. And the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns the year before that.

No need to go on. You get the picture.

Sunday’s game at Bank of America Stadium was vintage Jaguars, a team eager to become a success, but not quite certain how to seize the opportunity. This one had classic Team Tease written all over it.

“This was one that should have been won, man,” said Jaguars defensive end Jeremy Mincey. “We let it slip through the cracks.”

In so many little ways, the Jaguars do it to themselves. Even on a day when Panthers mercurial quarterback Cam Newton, after two 400-yard passing games, came down to earth and looked like a rookie, Del Rio’s team failed to take advantage of it.

The defense played well enough to win, keeping Newton in check for 53 minutes. Yet the Jaguars allowed him to complete every pass on the game-winning touchdown drive.

But that’s only part of what this maddening outcome so difficult to accept.

In every phase of the game, the Jaguars (1-2) did their part to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Maurice Jones-Drew’s 122 rushing yards went for naught. Newton’s rookie counterpart, Blaine Gabbert, provided a momentum-swinging touchdown pass to Mike Thomas in his first start as the first half clock expired. But the offense went limp from that point on, aided by two fumbled snaps that killed drives, and never added to a 10-5 lead.

“I’d say averaging just under 10 points a game [9.67] is not an ideal way to play,” Del Rio said of his low-powered offense.

It doesn’t end there. The Jaguars had a few special-teams breakdowns involving punter Matt Turk, whose inability to pin opponents deep in their territory, is a real problem that must be addressed. Turk also dropped a perfectly good snap that led to a Carolina field goal.

Perhaps fittingly, this wild football encounter closed out with the Jaguars looking puzzled and unable to adjust to game-ending chaos. With 1:02 remaining and no timeouts left, Gabbert drove his team into Carolina territory when tight end Marcedes Lewis made a difficult 9-yard catch. At that point, the clock ticked down to 16 seconds.

The play was reviewed, but the Jaguars were caught off guard after re-huddling and the clock began ticking before they broke the huddle. Ten seconds, nine, eight, seven. … By the time Brad Meester snapped the ball and Gabbert’s incomplete pass fell to the ground, the game was over.

“I’ve got to make sure that my offensive players, my offensive staff can come out of the review and execute in that situation,” Del Rio said. “Get up and get at least three cracks at the end zone, so I put that one on me because they didn’t handle it right. … That was not good, not good in any way, shape or form.”

To Del Rio’s credit, he blamed himself, saying it was his team’s job to adapt to the officials’ handling of the situation.

That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that the Jaguars had the momentum and failed to close things out against a previously winless opponent.

“At the end of the day, we’re not finding a way to win. We’re doing just the opposite,” said Jones-Drew.

The Jaguars have, at least so far, a vastly improved defense. They have a quarterback of the future in Gabbert who looks promising. They have a better roster than any time in the past three years.

But in many respects, they’re the same old Jaguars. They can’t seem to get out of their own way.